Composed for Ieva Jokubaviciute and premiered on January 12, 2025.

Four Etudes for Piano (2024)

The Horszowski Trio
Jesse Mills (vln), Ole Akahoshi (vc), Rieko Aizawa (pno)

Baldwin Auditorium, Duke University
October 9, 2021

I. Light and precise
II. Shock, then patient and quiet (attacca), in memoriam C.G.L.

"T120" is cast in two movements. The first is inspired by the experience of travel, sometimes at high speeds, through varied terrains, surfaces, and weather conditions. When conditions are right, I experience exhilaration, lightness of spirit, and indescribable well-being. The music is an intricate lacework of rhythmic drones, patterned accents, and, eventually, melodic phrases that grow out of a rhythmic pattern that runs throughout the piece. The music is anchored by an ostinato played at the outset by the violin that repeats every eleven beats, an asymmetrical phrase length that gently toys with our expectations. The asymmetry is amplified at first: downbeats are de-emphasized, accents appear seemingly at random (though they are all strictly patterned), and other rhythmic figures are superimposed in ways that disguise clear points of reference. This texture unfolds quietly and delicately, purposeful but unsettled. Later, the music becomes more grounded. The rhythmic patterns are embedded in shimmering piano figuration while the violin and cello explore their newfound melodic and rhythmic freedom, leading to an improvisatory violin solo complemented by jazzy piano comping. The cello then takes its turn, offering singing melodies that gradually intensify until all three instruments dive into exuberant music that comprises the long-awaited destination. 

The second movement was not part of my original plan, but it came to me quickly and to me felt like a necessary counterbalance to the calculated design of the first movement. This movement is a meditation on a series of personal losses. An excerpt from a review by A.O. Scott of the film The Irishman captures the feeling beautifully:
"... but part of a deeper, sadder lesson that has to do with the inevitability of loss. The loss of life, yes, but also the erosion of meaning that accompanies the fading of experience into memory and memory into nothing."

T120 for piano trio (2021)

Recollections was composed for Susan Fancher and the Ciompi Quartet.  It is a prelude to a longer work for the same musicians called Schley Road.  Recollections was premiered on April 7, 2023.

Recollections

"Souvenirs" is scored for flute, violin, viola, and cello and is cast in three movements.  The first and third movements take a fragment another piece of music as a seed around which I compose another piece of music.  Don't be fooled, the "source" piece is not obvious.  The middle movement uses a pattern of permutations based on "Queneau numbers" to structure phrase lengths.  

"Souvenirs" was commissioned by Electric Earth Concerts and was premiered by Laura Gilbert (fl), Nicholas DiEugenion (vln), Jonathan Bagg (vla), and Raman Ramakrishnan (cello).

"Souvenirs" for Flute Quartet

Composed for Ieva Jokubaviciute and premiered on January 12, 2025.  "Threads" moves a four-note figure through different registers, articulations, pulses, and harmonies from the first bar to the last.

Etude no. 1 - "Threads"

Composed for Ieva Jokubaviciute and premiered on January 12, 2025.   "Touched" has the spirit of improvisation, with quickly shifting textures, sudden dynamic changes, and mercurial syncopations.  Some say they hear a kind of crazed Gershwin...

Etude no. 2 - "Touched"

Composed for Ieva Jokubaviciute and premiered on January 12, 2025.  The pianist is asked to reveal a hidden melody embedded within each chord.  A strict interval pattern shapes the harmony throughout.

Etude no. 3 - "Chords"

Composed for Ieva Jokubaviciute and premiered on January 12, 2025.  "Q-D 6&9" uses a spiral permutation to determine the length of scales and the presentation of harmonies.  Later, the harmonies detach themselves from the scales and take on a life of their own.

Etude no. 4 - "Q-D 6&9"

for orchestra

The Illiad, Book 12, translated by Richard Lattimore

And they, as storms of snow descend to the ground incessant
on a winter day, when Zeus of the counsels, showing
before men what shafts he possesses, brings on a snowstorm
and stills the winds asleep in the solid drift, enshrouding
the peaks that tower among the mountains and the shoulders out-jutting,
and the low lands with their grasses, and the prospering work of men's
hands, and the drift falls along the grey sea, the harbours and beaches,
and the surf that breaks against it is stilled, and all things elsewhere
it shrouds from above, with the burden ofZeus' rain heavy upon it;
so numerous and incessant were the stones volleyed from both sides,
some thrown on Trojans, others flung against the Achaeans
by Trojans, so the whole length of the wall thundered beneath them.

January Music (1993)

A very old piece -- my first orchestral work.  This is a public reading after 25 minutes of rehearsal.

The recording is transferred from a cassette tape, so the sound quality is not great.

A Fire's Bright Song (1981/1987)

A wonderful performance by the Langley High School Wind Symphony  conducted by Doug Martin.  Doug commissioned Eternity's Sunrise and premiered it with his ensemble back in 2015, and it is so gratifying that he and his students (some of whom performed in the premiere) have taken the piece up again.  Bravo!

Eternity's Sunrise

I am a composer, a Professor of Music at Duke University.  Performance materials for all pieces available for purchase.  Contact me at scott dot lindroth at duke dot edu.

Scott Lindroth

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